‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – US researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives
From beginning to end, 2025 was a year of devastation for scientists in the United States.
January saw the abrupt suspension of key operations across the National Institutes of Health, not only disrupting clinical trials and other in-progress studies but stalling grant reviews and other activities necessary to conduct research. Around the same time, the Trump administration issued executive orders declaring there are only two sexes and ending DEI programs. The Trump administration also removed public data and analysis tools related to health disparties, climate change and environmental justice, among other databases.
February and March saw a steep undercutting of federal support for the infrastructure crucial to conducting research as well as the withholding of federal funding from several universities.
And over the course of the following months, billions of dollars of grants supporting research projects across disciplines, institutions and states were terminated. These include funding already spent on in-progress studies that have been forced to end before completion. Federal agencies, including NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the © The Conversation





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Gideon Levy
Penny S. Tee
Waka Ikeda
Grant Arthur Gochin
Daniel Orenstein
Beth Kuhel